Philadelphia Flyer of the Week: Wayne Simmonds

By Deanna Vasso

Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Flyers have come a long way from their struggles when their season opened, as they now are in seventh place of the Eastern Conference. They have quickly heated up mid-season, like they usually do, and have gone far in the past few weeks to put themselves in line with a playoff shot. This week, they proved their strength this week by winning three out of their four games, all of which were away.

One of the players that was influential with helping the team get those wins was Wayne Simmonds. He has been pretty consistent for the team this season, coming in as one of the top three players on the team. He’s right up there with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, having logged 28 points between 14 goals and 14 assists. Simmonds is right where he needs to be at this point in his career, and the Flyers have allowed his talents to flourish.

In their New Year’s Eve game against the Calgary Flames, Simmonds proved to be a good teammate with helping Mark Streit and Brayden Schenn get the puck behind the goal line. He was so influential, and was one of the three stars of the game. Simmonds scored the only goal in their loss to the Colorado Avalanche; unfortunately, the team couldn’t keep up as the Avs defeated them. He was also helpful in the Flyers rout against the Phoenix Coyotes by scoring one of the power-play goals.

The trade that gave the Flyers Simmonds is probably one of their best return options, and they’ll want to keep him as long as they can because of it.

Deanna Vasso is a Flyers writer for Rant Sports. You can follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook or join her Google network.